Following the folk tradition and going to the bathhouse on December 31 or organizing women's gatherings with natural scrubs is undoubtedly useful for every woman. Cleanse the body or remove a couple of extra pounds, inhale healthy essential oils or steam with a broom - everyone has their own goal. But what about your favorite hobby while breastfeeding? Is it possible to go to the bathhouse during breastfeeding? Will warm air harm women’s health? What is better to choose for a nursing woman - a traditional Russian bathhouse or a sauna?
Baths and saunas during breastfeeding are permitted procedures if the woman was familiar with them before pregnancy and childbirth and tolerated them well.
Misconception about the dangers of the procedure
The main reason for concern is the statement that under the influence of high temperatures in the sauna, milk loses its positive qualities and can completely “burn out.”
However, experts say that a bath during breastfeeding does not harm the lactation process. On the contrary, such an event can strengthen it.
If a young mother is in good health, follows all the precautions when visiting the sauna and does not forget to drink enough liquid (to prevent dehydration), the procedure will not harm her.
Features of the female body after childbirth
In Rus', the bathhouse was the cleanest room. In addition, there were no drafts. This place was considered the most favorable for mother and baby. Therefore, the girls were in the bathhouse during childbirth. In addition, the first days of a woman and her child passed there. In this way, family members tried to protect the young mother and baby from infection and hypothermia.
However, modern girls often ask the question of whether it is possible to go to the bathhouse during breastfeeding.
After all, while in a sauna, a woman is exposed to very high temperatures. Doctors believe that the first days after childbirth are not the best time for such procedures. It is necessary to wait until the young mother’s body has recovered sufficiently to withstand such a load.
A bath will fix everything
If your baby is suffering from colds, we highly recommend that you think about a bath. It strengthens the immune system, trains the cardiovascular system, and promotes the removal of mucus. And in the steam room you can breathe in the steam from herbal infusions (eucalyptus, linden, chamomile, etc. are suitable), here you have inhalation. The bath is also indicated for diseases of the skin, as well as the musculoskeletal system.
A bathhouse is useful for children with hypertonicity, because during bathing procedures muscle tone decreases, nerves calm down and overall well-being improves. Alternating temperatures initially gives a feeling of vigor, which is then replaced by relaxation and a feeling of pleasant fatigue. Tested: after the bath, children fall asleep right on the way home and sleep unusually soundly!
But the bathhouse also has contraindications. As for pregnant women, these are, first of all, acute inflammatory diseases accompanied by high fever. A sauna or bath is strictly prohibited for purulent inflammatory and infectious diseases (otitis, sinusitis, furunculosis), even if the temperature is not elevated. But if this disease is in a chronic stage, then a bath is very welcome.
You should not visit the bathhouse if you have convulsive seizures of various etiologies or with any form of epilepsy.
And one last thing. The effect of a bath or sauna will only be if you visit it regularly with your baby. Let this become your pleasant and at the same time useful habit!
Inessa Smyk
Other Important Aspects
Visiting a bathhouse during breastfeeding is safe only six to eight weeks after delivery. During this time, the young mother usually stops bleeding and the mucous membranes of the reproductive system heal.
In addition, it is necessary to remember that the baby consumes colostrum for the first day of his life. The milk becomes mature only after ten to twenty days. Its full production is possible provided proper nutrition and absence of stress on the body. Therefore, visiting the sauna is not advisable during this period.
Features of the effect of the procedure on a nursing woman
To answer the question of whether it is possible to go to the bathhouse during breastfeeding, it is necessary to take into account the effect of high temperatures and humidity on the body of a young mother.
In general, heat increases milk production. However, alternating heat and cold (for example, visiting the pool after a steam room) can provoke spasms of the mammary glands. This process can cause lactostasis, dysfunction of the immune system and even mastitis.
In addition, a negative aspect of this procedure is the long separation of the woman from the child. After all, during lactation it is important to regularly feed the baby. A visit to the sauna can take several hours.
It should also be remembered that exposure to high temperatures leads to copious secretion of milk and sweat. These processes can provoke dehydration and deterioration in the well-being of the young mother.
What to do when a nursing mother has stagnant milk? Treatment of lactostasis
If a nursing mother has signs of milk stagnation in the mammary gland, then you can consult a surgeon. If the stagnation is not complicated by a secondary infection and there is no fever, then you will be recommended:
- Continue breastfeeding on demand.
- Prepare your breasts in a special way for the next feeding.
- Eliminate all possible causes of lactostasis (see Causes of milk stagnation during breastfeeding). This breast preparation is a central therapeutic measure in order to combat and cope with lactostasis. It consists of mandatory pumping before each application to the breast.
- In addition, you will be recommended breast massage and physiotherapy for lactostasis (see below).
Useful tips
When a woman’s body has sufficiently recovered after childbirth, she can afford to visit the sauna. However, this procedure will be beneficial only if the following rules are followed:
- Girls who have never been to a bathhouse should not go there during lactation.
- Before visiting the steam room you need to feed your baby. Then the mammary glands do not overflow with milk, and the woman does not feel discomfort.
- A young mother can go to the bathhouse during breastfeeding only if there are no health problems.
- It is better to take the baby with you and ask a relative or friend to stay with him in the next room. After all, after a steam room, milk production increases.
- Experts advise drinking enough fluid. This can be herbal tea (with the exception of mint) or plain water at room temperature. Then the amount of milk will be normal, and the young mother’s well-being will not worsen.
- If, when visiting the steam room, a woman feels unwell (accelerated heart rate, dizziness, lethargy), she should leave the sauna as quickly as possible.
- This procedure should be carried out no more than once a week.
- Using a broom is not recommended.
- You should not swim in the pool after the steam room.
- You should not go outside in rainy or cold weather immediately after the sauna. It is better to get home by taxi or car.
If these rules are followed, the answer to the question of whether it is possible to take a steam bath during breastfeeding is affirmative.
Treatment of lactostasis at home
The main help for lactostasis and treatment is carried out at home - these are mandatory pumping and massage.
Highly effective phonation using the Vitafon medical device, which can also be performed at home. In 1997, the effectiveness of this device for the treatment of lactostasis and serous mastitis was confirmed by the Research Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology named after. BEFORE. OTTA ().
We bring to your attention a video review of a doctor of the highest category, candidate of medical sciences, associate professor of the Department of Pediatrics of Northwestern State Medical University named after. Mechnikova (St. Petersburg) F.N. Ryabchuk on the use of the Vitafon device for lactostasis and serous mastitis.
As a complement to these methods, it is possible to use some folk remedies: compresses with cabbage leaves and honey.
How to strain milk stagnation?
Expressing is necessary in order to restore the patency of the milk ducts and remove stagnation of breast milk in the affected breast lobule.
How to prepare for pumping? On the first day of the appearance of signs of lactostasis in a nursing mother, thermal exposure to the breast is permissible - a warm heating pad, a warm shower, but only on the first day. If during the first day it was not possible to resolve lactostasis, then heat should not be used in the following days.
You need to take a comfortable position - lying on a sofa or couch. Be sure to calm down. Anxiety can cause spasm of the milk ducts.
How to properly strain stagnant milk by hand at home?
For proper pumping, you need to place the congestive mammary gland (breast) on the palm of your hand (for the right breast - the right palm, for the left - the left). Slightly lift your chest with your palm and massage your chest for 5-15 minutes (see Breast massage). The appearance of first drops of milk, and then streams, indicates the restoration of the patency of the milky passages.
After this, you can proceed to pumping. To do this, the thumb and index fingers need to be positioned along the edges of the areola (parapapillary circle). Using these fingers, make gentle pressing movements from the surface inward and from the edge of the areola to the nipple. This is a rather long procedure lasting up to 30-40-60 minutes. But manual massage is more gentle than expressing with a breast pump.
Using a breast pump for expressing is very convenient and effective. This speeds up the process, and the pain will be less intense.
Finish the pumping procedure when the softness and elasticity of the breast and nipple are restored - signs of unloading of stagnation. The use of a breast pump is contraindicated if there are cracked nipples.
After decanting, you can proceed directly to feeding. First of all, give your baby the sore breast. A hungry baby will suck the maximum amount of milk from her. Position your child so that his chin rests directly on the hardened area. When sucking, the movements of the chin will push the milk out of the stagnation area. Do not feed from time to time in the same position, because... the monotonous position of your body is one of the likely causes of lactostasis. Once your baby is full, express the remaining milk again.
It is very important to know that it is permissible to independently combat milk stagnation only in the first two days, especially if there is an increase in temperature due to lactostasis.
Elevated temperature during lactostasis is associated with the accumulation of milk in a stagnant lobule or lobules and its absorption into the blood. Therefore, a radical antipyretic treatment for stagnation of milk during breastfeeding will be complete emptying of the breast. Medications will only have a temporary effect. Among them, for nursing mothers it is possible to use drugs of the paracetamol group, but only as prescribed by a doctor.
Your doctor will advise you on further steps to remove stagnation of breast milk.
First aid or physical therapy
Physiotherapy for lactostasis is carried out using the phonation method using the Vitafon medical device.
The method is based on the effect of low-frequency mechanical microvibration on tissue.
Stagnation of milk in a nursing mother occurs due to the appearance of a real obstacle in the outflow tract. This obstacle consists of several components:
- reduction in the diameter of the milk ducts;
- edema;
- the accumulated milk itself.
A decrease in lumen diameter is a triggering factor, the reasons for which are described at the beginning of the article. Edema occurs when the volume of non-flowing milk begins to compress microvessels of any profile - arterial, venous, lymphatic. Blood is retained above the obstruction site and overstretches the vascular wall. The permeability of the wall increases and the liquid part of the blood - plasma - passes into the tissues. An increase in the amount of tissue fluid is edema. An increase in the volume of tissue (edematous) fluid increases compression on the milk ducts and blood vessels, milk and blood retention increases, and all disorders develop further. A vicious circle is formed, with each successive revolution of which the manifestations of lactostasis and accompanying microcirculation disorders deepen more and more. If infection also occurs, then lactostasis is complicated by lactation mastitis.
The main goal of therapy in such cases is to break pathological cause-and-effect relationships anywhere in the vicious circle and cure lactostasis.
Normally, the movement of milk through the milk ducts is ensured by contractions of the muscle fibers of the mammary gland, and the lymphatic system is responsible for removing excess tissue fluid. But with lactostasis, both muscle fibers and lymphatic microvessels are pinched by edema and stagnant milk, so this function is not fulfilled and falls out.
Vibroacoustic therapy with the Vitafon apparatus (phonation) destroys the pathological chain of events and radically eliminates stagnation of milk in the mammary gland by replenishing the lack of tissue microvibration levels, restoring the condition of the muscle cells of the gland and the walls of microvessels, as well as cleaning the tissue from damaged cells.
After phonation the following are completely restored:
- movement of milk along the outflow tract,
- tone and permeability of vascular walls,
- the amount of tissue fluid, that is, all mechanisms and symptoms of lactostasis are completely eliminated.
In addition, vibroacoustic therapy has an anti-inflammatory effect and strengthens local immunity. Therefore, simultaneously with the elimination of milk stagnation in a nursing mother, Vitafon provides the safest and most reliable prevention of lactation mastitis.
Phonics is absolutely painless, non-traumatic and easily tolerated, and also has a small list of contraindications.
Vitafon is used both in medical and preventive institutions and outside them. Thus, with the help of the device you can provide radical help with lactostasis at home. Carry out 4 phonation procedures per day until the symptoms disappear and then for another 2 days. More details on the phonation technique can be found here.
With a review from the Research Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology named after. BEFORE. OTTA on the use of the Vitafon medical vibroacoustic device in the treatment of lactostasis can be found here. The result of using Vitafon was that it was possible to express the mammary glands within 6-8 hours.
Breast massage
Breast massage has proven itself to be effective for milk stagnation. You can do it at home yourself as much as you need. There is no harm to the baby. Massage should be done before pumping or feeding, as well as after feeding. Massage time is 5-15 minutes.
How to massage with lactostasis?
Before starting, lightly grease your hands and chest with vegetable oil. Then place the sore breast on your palm. Raise your palm up and slightly to the side and your chest also rises slightly. In this position, the milk ducts open in the nipple area. With your free hand, using soft circular, enveloping movements, lightly stroke and at the same time press on the breast (Fig. No. 1), starting from the top and moving towards the nipple (Fig. 2 and 3).
After some time, we change the nature of the movements. Now, using your thumb and forefinger, gently massage the areola from top to bottom and from outside to inside.
We alternate circular movements and areola massage. Add gentle tapping on the chest with your fingertips. You can also bend over and shake your chest a little. Milk gradually begins to come out, first drop by drop, then in a trickle. Only now can you move on to pumping or feeding.
Treatment with folk remedies
Traditional medicine over several thousand years has accumulated a huge number of recommendations and recipes for the prevention and treatment of various diseases.
On the one hand, we would be very unreasonable creatures if we abandoned the experience of the healers of the past, proven over decades and centuries. On the other hand, many traditional medicines do not have any evidence base or scientific basis for their effectiveness and can be harmful and even dangerous to health. One of the main dangers is to rely on them and miss the time for timely and effective treatment. The price of such mistakes is the development of severe complications and irreversible consequences, including deprivation of the child's mother's milk.
It is believed that the main folk remedies to get rid of lactostasis in a nursing mother are cabbage leaves and honey. They are often used for milk stagnation in nursing women due to their supposed decongestant properties. Such recommendations can be heard even from midwives. Indeed, relieving edema frees the milk ducts from compression and normalizes their throughput, but it should be remembered that the use of folk remedies is an additional measure and does not cancel the main measures, such as pumping, Vitafon treatment and massage.
What should you take with you to the sauna?
A nursing woman is allowed to use quite ordinary items for this procedure:
- Headgear (to protect against overheating).
- A towel (to wipe up milk if it starts leaking from the breasts).
- Slippers.
- First aid kit. Be sure to take medications that lower blood pressure and ammonia with you.
- Clean and ironed sheets.
Before visiting a bathhouse during breastfeeding, a young mother can purchase a special set of things for this procedure in a hypermarket or cosmetics store.
What should not be done in the bath during gw
Many avid bath attendants will not recognize a steam room without a dip in an ice hole, a cold pool or a scalding rubdown with snow. But when breastfeeding your baby naturally, you can forget about such hobbies. Because due to the impact of a sharp temperature change, a nursing woman may experience blockage of the milk ducts, which can later develop into lactostasis. To cool your body a little after a steam room, a warm shower is enough. You can replace it with a contrasting one, while carefully ensuring that streams of water do not fall on your chest to avoid hypothermia.
What symptoms should not be ignored?
The body of a nursing mother may react negatively to visiting the sauna. Lactation is an unpredictable process. Therefore, a woman should be extremely careful about her health while in the steam room, especially for the first time after childbirth. If a girl feels unwell (weakness, ringing in the ears, attacks of nausea, dizziness), she needs to avoid visiting the sauna for several months. After all, these symptoms indicate that the young mother’s body is not yet ready to withstand the effects of high temperatures and humid air.
In addition, a woman needs to pay attention to the volume of milk. If it decreases after the procedure, it should be postponed for about six months. After visiting the sauna, you should dry your hair well and dress for the weather to protect yourself from hypothermia. If the condition worsens, the answer to the question of whether it is possible to take a steam bath during breastfeeding is certainly negative. In this situation, the woman is recommended to postpone this event until the end of the lactation period.
What body care cosmetics should you take with you?
As a rule, women use several products during this procedure. They apply lotions, masks, scrubs, and creams to the surface of the skin. However, during the lactation period, a young mother should limit herself to cosmetics made from natural ingredients. The fact is that under the influence of high temperatures, chemicals can penetrate into milk through enlarged pores. Experts recommend using products intended for children. These are baby creams, soaps, lotions and foams. Such cosmetics are natural and safe. In addition, it can make the skin soft and smooth.
During lactation, a woman is recommended to use natural remedies based on honey and decoctions of medicinal herbs. Ideally, this should be cosmetics made at home (masks made from yeast, kefir and yolks, scrub made from coffee grounds, chamomile lotion, a mixture of cottage cheese and carrots). In addition, a nursing mother can buy luxury body care products before visiting the sauna. Such products are of good quality and contain safe components that will not harm either the woman or the baby.
Today, many experts give an affirmative answer to the question of whether it is possible to go to the bathhouse during breastfeeding. Komarovsky, for example, recommends visiting the sauna for young mothers who lack breast milk. Exposure to high temperatures enhances the lactation process. However, doctors warn women who have recently given birth that if they have chronic pathologies, they should consult a doctor before deciding to undergo such a procedure. After all, a young mother, whose body is subjected to serious stress, should take care of her health.
Cosmetic procedures in the bath
People go to the bathhouse not only for a healthy mind, but also for a healthy body. The pores on the skin are maximally open and are most susceptible to the components of cosmetic products. For a young mother who cares about her body, this is especially important, because you want to get in shape faster and remove any stretch marks that have appeared. During lactation, traditional medicine recipes will help solve the problem. Before going to the steam room, you should prepare your own masks, healing scrubs or creams. Natural ingredients are considered more beneficial than products from well-known cosmetic brands. In addition, a nursing mother should not use highly active ingredients; they can enter the mother’s body through open pores, then into the milk and then into the baby’s milk, causing an allergic reaction.
Making bath products with your own hands, for example, scrubs or masks, is very simple, and the effect from them will be no worse than from purchased products.
Often nursing mothers use a scrub made from ground coffee, sugar, sea salt, and cinnamon for flavor. Add olive oil, cream or honey to the mixture. As an alternative, you can make a face mask from the same olive oil, sour cream and the yolk of one egg. A kefir mask will help strengthen and restore the hair - apply it to the hair, leave it for half an hour, then rinse it off.
To prevent the development of allergic reactions, you need to use only proven ingredients. First, you can try some products on a separate area of the skin, and if there is no reaction, repeat the application.
